A Love that Spans Time
by Magawa
Summary: InuKag. The GodTree sees everything that goes on in the lives of the mortals that surround it.


A.N. They aren't mine, but I do love them so much...

For all the billions of Inuyasha fanfics I've seen, I've never seen one with a storyline like this, or with the inherent ideas it contains. I'm sure that the ideas can be successfully expanded upon, but I don't have the energy to do so at the moment, so you get a little one-shot overview. Let me know if you like the ideas I've put forth and maybe if you do, I'll give a little expansion pack...

**A Love that Spans Time**

By Magawa

I have sat here for time out of memory, guarding the portal which binds time. My roots touch both ends and the human concept of time holds little meaning for me, for I am. I am past and present and future, tangled as inexorably as my roots in the soil. Time is not linear. Instead I see all times at once: the past is now, the future is now, and I stand tall, guarding those who pass beneath my branches.

The humans call me the God Tree, and while I am certainly not powerful enough to consider myself godlike, I can understand their awe of my omnipotence. I have, after all, watched many humans and believe I can accurately assess their feelings.

There are few humans as precious to me as the girl Kagome. We share a common bond of time. I watched her grow from just the tiniest of human saplings, to a wood-nymph with a spine harder than oak and a heart soft as cedar, all within a body as slender as the beautiful birch. Seeing the past and future all at once, I knew her to be special.

There are also few demons, half- or otherwise as close to me as Inuyasha. The arrow that pierced his heart also pierced mine. The magic within the priestess' arrow was meant to cause the half-demon Inuyasha death, but I who knew better of what was to come, grasped at the essence of time, and merely caused sleep. His sleep, rather like my waking state, allowed him to see what I have seen, to know what I have known.

And so fifty years passed for the half-demon Inuyasha. I restricted myself to only showing him the far future, or the far past. No mere mortal, demon or not, ought to know what truly happens during their lifetime. We watched the girl Kagome often, until she became as dear to him as she was to me. Often my roots cradled her body in childish sleep, or when she was upset. She ate the fruit of my tree and sang under flower petal showers. Inuyasha, bound as he was to me, found peace in the simple pleasure of watching her.

We grew very close, that half-demon and I. In our communion, I learned his past, understood his destiny, comprehended his faults and became fond of his personality. He had a pride that would make small the tallest of redwoods and a vulnerability that made the fragile orchid look sturdy. I knew that one day Kagome would set him free from my protection, and that then they would have to protect each other. In my own way, I hoped that it would be enough.

Five-hundred years into the past or fifty years into the future passed and finally my two proud, stubborn and hearts-of-gold children were able to meet. In all things physical, strength as well as appearance, they are opposites. But, for all their differences, they are so alike.

When Kagome grasped that arrow, I released the sleep upon the half-demon and imparted a small gift on the boy. I had made him temporarily forget his time with me.

I knew how things would turn out. I know how things will end. I know that if Inuyasha had awoken and declared his undying love for the girl that she would have scampered back to her time without a look back, and Inuyasha would have again had his heart torn from him. Kagome never would have understood the depth of feeling he held and the flower of their love would have been nipped in the bud.

No, as angry and insensible as that made my half-demon friend, it was all for the best. It didn't take my young friend long to remember everything he knew about Kagome: perhaps the space of two hours, perhaps the span of a day. It is always so difficult for me to judge time in human counting blocks.

I do know that that night he settled his back against my trunk high up in my branches and communed with me. I gave him a simplified version of my reasoning, and he agreed with me. I fear I gave him too much information, or perhaps not enough. But things are as they are and are not meant to change as flippantly as the wind.

After a time they left me, as I knew must happen, to search out the jewel shards. I saw their best moments, and their worst. I was privy to all the hurtful arguments that sent Kagome running back to her time. I was also able to see the apologies, the tears, the hugs, the protective gestures on both their parts. Sometimes when Inuyasha was too stubborn to dive into the well after her, he would sit in my branches and close his eyes and watch over her with me.

During major crisis, Inuyasha would always come to me, to find solace in my branches, and ask my advice. I felt his heart constrict when Kagome would leave, his body heavy as deadwood with regret for whatever harsh words he had uttered.

I saw my children battle evil, and offered what little protection I was able to give. I saw love triumphant, when that final evil was destroyed by the force of their combined love and friendship. Their love made them courageous, and I was proud of my young ones.

I saw their first kiss, the home where they raised their own saplings; I saw them live their lives as one. I saw happiness after happiness and basked in the aura of their love as I and my brethren often do in the glory of the sun.

I offered protection to both, on all sides of time, as often as I could. I knew their love was not within the normal bounds of human, or even demon love. Theirs was a love more akin to what I was, what I am. Theirs is, was, and forever will be, a love that spans time.


End file.
